1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medicine packet inspecting apparatus, and more particularly to a medicine packet inspecting apparatus that detects medicine packets, which are packaged differently from a prescription or contain defective tablets, such as damaged tablets.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a medicine packet inspecting apparatus refers to an apparatus that inspects medicine packets, which are packaged in the unit of a dose through an automatic medicine packing machine and discharged in a bundle from the medicine packing machine, to detect the number of tablets contained in the packets and whether or not the tablets are damaged.
Such a conventional medicine packet inspecting apparatus includes a transfer conveyer to transfer a medicine packet bundle discharged from the medicine packing machine to one side of the medicine packet inspecting apparatus, a tablet spreading unit to uniformly spread tablets within the medicine packets of the medicine packet bundle discharged through the transfer conveyer, an image reading unit to capture the upper surfaces of the medicine packets, in which the tablets are uniformly spread and to detect whether or not the medicine packets are defective through comparison of the number of the tablets and the colors and shapes of the tablets by comparing the captured images with information regarding a prescription and the tablets stored in a data storage unit, and a marking unit to mark a defective sign on medicine packets judged to be defective packets by the image reading unit.
In the above conventional medicine packet inspecting apparatus, since the medicine packet bundle input from the outside of a main body of the medicine packet inspecting apparatus is extended longitudinally to the outside of the medicine packet inspecting apparatus, it is difficult to collect the extended medicine packet bundle at a designated place. Further, continuous supply of the medicine packet bundle from the outside of the medicine packet inspecting apparatus to the inside of the medicine packet inspecting apparatus is inconvenient, and thereby an inspecting speed of the medicine packets by the medicine packet inspecting apparatus is remarkably reduced.